Hazard Mitigation Plan

The term "Hazard Mitigation" describes actions that can help reduce or eliminate long-term risks caused by natural hazards, or disaster, such as floods, wildfires, high winds and earthquakes. After disasters, repairs and reconstruction are often completed in such a way as to simply restore damaged property to pre-disaster conditions. These efforts may expedite a return to normal conditions, but the replication of pre-disaster conditions often results in a repetitive cycle of damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage.

Hazard mitigation is needed to break this repetitive cycle by producing less vulnerable conditions through post-disaster repairs and reconstruction. The implementation of such hazard mitigation actions now by state and local governments means building stronger, safer and smarter communities that will be able to reduce future injuries and future damage.

Hazard Mitigation Breaks the Cycle

When recurrent disasters take place repeated damage and reconstruction occurs. This recurrent reconstruction is often more expensive over time. Hazard mitigation breaks this expensive cycle of recurrent damage and increasing reconstruction costs by taking a long-term view of rebuilding and recovery following natural disasters.